The South Australian government’s COVID-19 reopening roadmap will allow fully vaccinated travellers from Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT to visit the state without having to quarantine from 23 November.
Premier Steven Marshall says that 80% of SA residents aged 16+ are expected to be fully vaccinated by this date. However, SA has ruled out abolishing other COVID-19 restrictions until 90% of residents aged 12+ are fully vaccinated.
The quarantine period for international travellers will be reduced from 14 days to just seven on 23 November.
This comes after the Queensland Government last week announced that the state would reopen to fully-vaccinated people arriving from interstate hotspots from 17 December.
Meanwhile, the federal government today announced that overseas departures will be permitted without approval from 1 November for fully vaccinated Australians.
An Australia-Singapore “travel lane” will also take effect from 8 November. Australia will join the 11 countries that are already participating in Singapore’s “vaccination travel lane” arrangement, which allows people to enter the country without the need to quarantine. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the Seven Network today that “we are very close now to the reciprocal arrangements with Singapore”.
By contrast, WA Premier Mark McGowan maintains that his state will not open its borders to travellers from New South Wales and Victoria before the end of the year, even if they are fully-vaccinated. He contends that people who are vaccinated can still spread COVID-19. McGowan adds that opening the states borders to people from coronavirus-hit would most likely require the reintroduction of COVID-19 measures that have been rarely used in WA since the pandemic began.
It will be interesting to watch whether WA chooses to close its border to Queensland and SA once they reopen to the virus states.
How long will WA remain shut off from the rest of Australia?
